Posts Tagged ‘Irrational Behavior’
Thursday, August 12th, 2010
Inception has been out for some time now, and has received raving reviews, so if you have not seen it, definitely treat yourself to this awesome movie! Much like one can draw a lot of parallels between The Matrix and how our reality is simply our perception of something that can be very different, Inception also offers many such thought-provoking elements. I personally really enjoyed how the movie talked about ‘an idea’, and how it can be the most resilient thing in existence, which can grow to define you or to destroy you.
I also appreciated how they talked about the sub-conscious, it’s power, our inability to control most aspects of it, and how ideas planted in the sub-conscious can take hold. Very cool stuff indeed! You can look at that from many different angles of understanding of what the sub-conscious mind is and what it does, and the movie will likely resonate with your view.
But to come back to the concept of ‘an idea’. It, undoubtedly, is very powerful. It is the starting point of everything in our lives. Our personalities, behaviours, goals, and fears are all based on different ideas. Once we get an idea firmly planted in our mind, there are mechanisms in our brain that are designed to keep it there and give it nourishment – and this has been scientifically shown. This movie was a good reminder for me to re-examine what kind of ideas are driving my life.
Until next time,
V
Tags: Action, Fear, goals, Human Behavior, Irrational Behavior, Neo-Spirituality, Personal Power
Posted in Psychology | No Comments »
Wednesday, August 11th, 2010
If you look at the projections for the world we live in, you may wonder whether we will actually witness the ‘end of the world’. Between the earthquakes and the floods, the financial and economic meltdowns, the growing income gap between social classes and the disappearing middle class, the environmental disasters and global warming, the drying of oil wells and rising costs of energy, the shortage of food and lack of fresh water, the ballooning population growth and the strain on Earth’s resources, as well as the end of Mayan calendar, we very well may be in for quite a ride! My question is, and this is aimed at the more experienced life readers, has it always been like this?
Sure, the world currently looks pretty messed up from some angles, but then even in the last 100 years we went through two World Wars, the Great Depression, the Cold War, spikes in oil prices, stock market crashes, weather changes, and a number of other challenges. I’m sure that the outlook wasn’t too bright when the fear of Red Commies nuking the world was gripping the West. Do you think humans are just wired to scream ‘the end of the world’ like Chicken Little?
Until next time,
V
Tags: Fear, Human Behavior, Irrational Behavior
Posted in Psychology | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 27th, 2010
Research shows that the more effort you put into something, the more satisfied you are with the results. One study measured the satisfaction that students experienced with their new fraternity membership, and how much they valued it. One group went through a very intense initiation process that was obviously far from enjoyable, while the other group had to simply fill out an application. Both groups were applying for the same fraternity, so there was no difference in terms of status of the group. As I suggested earlier, the group that went through the initiation was much more satisfied with their membership and valued it a lot more than the other group. We remember all the sweat and tears, and that makes the outcome worth while (even if the outcome is the same). So I guess that saying is true after all, that “without the bitter baby, the sweet ain’t as sweet!”
There is a little counter-intuitive aspect to this, since we are living in the world where everything is supposed to become faster and easier to do or get. But if you take this research seriously, people will like your product or service more if they have to jump through some hoops to get it. Think about it this way, if you need to see a lawyer, and he or she is available in the next 30 minutes, that is convenient. But if the same lawyer is booked for the next 3 weeks, and asks you to send an email with your urgent request and then asks you to come at some odd time for a consultation, you’ll be much more pleased with this experience than the first one.
Until next time,
V
Tags: Human Behavior, Irrational Behavior
Posted in Psychology | No Comments »
Friday, July 23rd, 2010
We all heard that before, right? What’s interesting is that it is totally true, and it is true because we do not approach arguments and debates with an open mind. We can be convinced of an opinion when we are yet to form a belief system on the subject, but when we have made up our minds about something, having debates and arguments will not help bridge the belief gap.
If we approached different points of view rationally, being exposed to arguments by the other side should make us re-consider our position. This cannot be further away from the truth. There was an interesting experiment done where two people with different points of view were given two academic papers to read. Both papers were written equally well by equally qualified experts in the field. One paper presented a set of arguments for one view, while the other presented a set of arguments for a conflicting view. Again, if we approached this rationally, reading two expert papers on the subject that present opposing points of view should have made the two parties move closer towards the middle ground on the issue. What happened, thought, was that the two people moved even further apart as they became even more convinced of their own point of view. They praised the ‘well-written’ paper that supported their view and ruthlessly critiqued the other ‘poorly-written’ paper for even the minor things.
The human nature is fascinating, don’t you think?
Until Monday,
V
Tags: Communication, Human Behavior, Irrational Behavior, Relationships
Posted in Psychology | No Comments »
Thursday, July 1st, 2010
Maybe this stems from our pre-historic times where survival was dependent on staying with the group, but to this day people find it very difficult, if not outright impossible to go against the ‘group-think’. Essentially, if the group is doing something, an individual who is part of the group will find it very difficult to go against it. We see evidence of this everywhere.
Crowd control is a very serious issue for law-enforcement agencies, since if aggressive or violent behaviour gets beyond one or two individuals, the mob-mentality takes over and at that point it’s like the G20 Summit in Toronto. In companies group psychologists showed time after time that it is good to have a person on a team who is comfortable with challenging ideas. Otherwise, there could be a number of people who are afraid to speak up, and end up going along with the decision they don’t like. In a classroom setting, good teachers tell their students to ask any question that they may have, since chances are, there are other people in the class with the same question who are simply afraid to ask.
This also ties into personal growth. An individual will find it very difficult to succeed at anything, if the people around them are not supportive. That is why it is a wise decision to surround yourself with people who are where you want to be and have the things you want to have, or at least are heading that way. Otherwise, you’ll try a couple of things, and by doing so you’ll start to stand out from the group. That will feel uncomfortable for most people, and the group will pull you back to where you started.
I’m taking a day off tomorrow to enjoy the long weekend. Until Monday,
V
Tags: Action, goals, Human Behavior, Irrational Behavior, Money, Personal Power, Relationships, Response-ability, Success
Posted in Psychology, Relationships, Success, Taking Action | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010
Last week I wrote a post on how high emotion leads to low intelligence and results very often in poor decisions. At the end I said that there are very few instances where emotions have a place in making decisions. In the time that followed, I got a couple of comments on the post, so I thought I’d take another stab at it. What I was trying to say last week was that really strong emotions, like when we are head-over-heels in love, or when we are so angry that steam is coming out of you ears, strongly affect the quality of our decisions. Very often we look back and regret the things we have done or said. These are the situations that the ‘high emotion – low intelligence’ comment refers to.
Emotions in themselves, when they do not take control of you, are actually vital to sound decision making. Reason and emotion go hand in hand. In 1848, there was a remarkable case of Phineas Gage in Vermont. Phineas Gage survived a head injury that took out his abilities to experience emotions, but left his reasoning capabilities perfectly intact. The accident made it very difficult for him to make any decisions, even trivial ones, whereas prior to the injury that was not the case.
We rely on emotions to tell us whether something ‘feels right’ or somehow just doesn’t. We trust that gut feeling and without it we seem unable to reason our way to a conclusion. So emotions are not bad unless they start to overtake you.
Until next time,
V
Tags: Action, Decision Making, Human Behavior, Irrational Behavior, Relationships, Response-ability, Success
Posted in Psychology, Success, Taking Action | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, June 29th, 2010
You heard that before, right? So this post is more on the ‘morality’ of things. I am going to go out on a limb here and state that everyone has broken rules at one point or another. So what makes it OK to break the rules? Are all the rules meant to be broken? If not, what determines whether it is OK to break a rule or not? I am just curious. I am not expecting any confessions here; instead I’d like to find out where different people stand on the concept of ‘rules’.
When it comes to the rules themselves, do we even need them? What I mean is, do we need rules to tell us how to behave, or do we have some sort of intrinsic understanding of what is OK and not OK to do? I’ve heard an argument, that I personally don’t agree with, that people need religion to tell them what is right and what is wrong, implying that if we did not have the ‘ten commandments’, we would not know that it is not OK to kill another. So if we do know that it is not right to do certain things, why have written rules for them? And if we do not, then maybe it’s not all that bad?
As you can see, there are a lot more questions in this post than answers. Again, I’m curious as to what the different opinions are, so the questions are there to get your mental juices flowing.
Until next time,
V
Tags: Action, Human Behavior, Irrational Behavior, Personal Power, Religion
Posted in Psychology | 2 Comments »
Friday, June 25th, 2010
To me ‘emotional decision making’ is equivalent to ‘irrational decision making’. It is the best way that I can sum it up. I don’t remember where I first heard it, otherwise I’d give full credit, but I do recall someone saying that high emotion leads to low intelligence. Another great way to put it.
I recently had a chat about this with a couple of friends in relation to soccer. Refs use yellow cards to calm the players down and make sure that the game does not get out of hand. There were a few games that I have seen where refs lost control of the game by giving out too many yellow cards. At some point, the players start to intentionally be more physical and aggressive in their challenges, as to dare the ref to show another card. Since two yellow cards get you sent off leaving your team short-handed and earn you a next-game suspension, why would anyone want to dare the ref to give them a card? Well, simply because they are angry and frustrated with the ref and high emotional involvement leads to stupid decision making.
Soccer, obviously, is not the only place where this applies. We even have a different classification for murders that occur in ‘the heat of the moment’ and punish those offenders differently. So there is recognition in our society of emotional decision making and we try to account for that. However, the most valuable thing that you can do is to recognize that tendency in your own life, and give yourself time and space to cool off before making a decision. Easier said than done, but it is a very valuable skill to have. There are very few places where emotions have a place in making decisions.
Until Monday,
V
Tags: Action, Decision Making, Human Behavior, Irrational Behavior, Relationships, Response-ability, Success
Posted in Psychology, Success, Taking Action | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, June 16th, 2010
The other day I had a casual conversation with someone and we got talking about some of our past experiences. The conversation transitioned to the recall of some times when we were really challenged – training really hard with a team, going on few hours of sleep during certain school times, etc. I noticed that even though these experiences are not something that I want to go through again, I am still glad that I had them. It was a similar story for my friend. Then I started to recall other conversations that I had with people over the years, and if my memory serves me well, most people did not regret having their experiences, but they would not necessarily want to have them again. A similar theme emerges from interviews with some very successful people – they are glad they did what they did, but now knowing what it takes, would not eagerly do it over again.
Does anyone know what psychological mechanism is at work here?
It’s fascinating – we are glad that we had the experience, but would not want to go through it again. Well, if you like the outcome, why not go through the experience again? When I think about it, the main reason I would not want to go through the experience over again, is because I know what it takes. But then I’m glad that I had the experience because it now contributes to who I am as a person.
If you have any thoughts you’d like to share, please do so.
Until next time,
V
Tags: Happiness, Human Behavior, Irrational Behavior
Posted in Psychology, Success | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, June 15th, 2010
My advise – don’t worry so much about what other people think. I wrote several times on fear and how it is usually the primary offender in keeping us from taking action. I think, and I hope that you’ll agree, that a big component of fear is our concern about what others will think of our choices and our actions. Another way to think about it, is to consider how you would feel about a given choice if you knew, with absolute confidence, that no one would ever know about its success or failure. Whenever I try that to think about it that way, a lot of the fear goes away. But that is not what I want to talk about today.
We established that people care a great deal about what others think of them, which contributes to the feelings of fear, that I am sure we have all experienced. The interesting thing is that as you, and me, and my neighbour, and your friend, and your friend’s friend, and everyone else worries about what others think of them, they do not leave much time for worrying about others. That is where the notion that ‘you are the person who cares most about you’ comes from. Following that logic, it seems that people don’t really care that much about the choices of others, but they think that everyone else cares about their choices. What that says to me is that I should not care so much about what other think about my choices, since they likely won’t think much of them anyway.
Does that make sense? Your thoughts?
Until next time,
V
Tags: Action, Fear, Human Behavior, Irrational Behavior, Personal Power, Success
Posted in Psychology, Success, Taking Action | 1 Comment »